MAP BioPharma

Bed blocking is becoming an increasing problem, with patients awaiting treatment due to lack of hospital beds, while those treated are unable to leave due to a lack of community care packages, adding further financial burden on the health services. The Department of Health (DH) has therefore announced its intentions to free up hundreds of thousands of hospital beds currently occupied by bed-blockers through home care, allowing people to be treated in their own homes rather than in hospitals.

In the new NHS mandate for the coming year, the government promised to reduce bed-blocking to 3.5%, the equivalent of releasing more than 2,000 extra beds a day. Currently around 5% of the 137,000 hospital beds in the NHS are taken up by people who do not need to be there.